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A More Perfect World

The world premiere of Tony Green's play. Taking place in 2018, 1978 & the First World War, this is a must-see for theatergoers & historians!

Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon, Wed 11 April - Sat 14 April 2018

Ripped straight from the real-life experiences of First World War veterans, Tony Green's brand new play A More Perfect World tells the stories of three different characters in three different times; 2018, 1978 and the years of the war. Watch as a soldier, an officer and a nurse relive their memories of the war in 1978 for a documentary, which is then broadcast 40 years later; but how twisted do their words become? Expect topical comments on the "fake news" culture of today.

Location

On
11th April 1918 the Western Front was in the throes of the series of
German Spring offensives designed to smash through the Allied line, reach the
coast and win the war. The very next day marked one of the most serious
setbacks for the Allies as they were everywhere forced to give ground, leading
Field-Marshal Haig to issue his famous "Backs to the Wall" Order of
the Day to the British Army in France. Meanwhile, 100 years later, in the
Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon, a first-night audience was watching A More Perfect World by local playwright
Tony Green. A centenary TV documentary on World War I is interviewing a history
professor. We zoom to 1978 where three WWI veterans - a private, a colonel and
a nursing volunteer - are being quizzed about their war experience. As they
talk, a flashback-within-the-flashback takes us across the Channel to the scene
of their service in France.

The
postscript plea from Professor York that people should "read the books and
do their own thinking" seemed to encapsulate Mr Green's theme about the
importance of declining to accept the news media's facile acceptance of myth
and stereotype; and particularly the notion of regarding those who fought in
that war as little more than victims. Well yes, but do any more than a minority
believe everything they read in newspapers and see on TV? I don't know that
contemporary opinion does necessarily bestow little but victimhood on the
participants in this conflict. Nevertheless
this is a timely warning from the playwright that we should not accept
stereotypes at face value.

Designer Michael Ward has come up with quite a
clever idea of switching from the a trench and its firestep to a field hospital
by means of hollow, white-painted units to the sides and rear of the stage
which swing open to reveal the hospital interior complete with bed. Director
Maria Crocker has managed to extend the playing space by squeezing in a little
interview area at front right for the interviews. The stage was also given nice
depth and resonance by backcloth projection depicting now several versions of a
bombed-out wilderness towards the German lines, notably a scene of cloying mud
and water-filled shell holes, then in succession a trench map, a moonlit night,
and a swathe of artillery smoke. This said, the Unicorn stage is fairly
diminutive in the first place, and since the constructed set takes away space
on three sides, what remains for the playing space is pretty cramped, permitting
limited scope for movement.

The
writer and director have also had to confront the problem of how to convey
knowledge about the conflict and its characters. To achieve this in a natural,
flowing manner through the dialogue is a difficult test for any playwright, and
it's not surprising that Mr Green has opted for rather a didactic approach,
with his actors called upon to pass on to us what amount to blocks of information
in little set speeches. Given that the opening, 2018-set scene and its successors
comprise what amounts to a lecture by Professor York, there's a little bit of a
static feel to the proceedings, where characters, e.g. Colonel Mead and the young
Rennett-Chalmers, and then the two nurses, tended to stand and deliver. I did,
however, enjoy the welcome and interesting use of rhyming couplets in the
mouths of several players at moments of heightened stress.

Some
flashes of humour also relieved what could have been a fairly sombre picture,
necessarily so given the subject matter. There was a loud laugh for rather posh
Volunteer Nurse Copperington-Cook (Lucy Wilton) describing her boyfriend as
"tall and handsome and incredibly funny; I just want to bite him",
and the surprisingly upbeat Corporal Bramley, excellently played by the voluble,
ebullient Kieran Piggott with his "Are we downhearted?" refrain, was
a constant source of chirpy realism. He and Duncan Blagrove as an unnamed
Aussie soldier, injecting energy in his brief appearance, got the play's second
half off to a bustling start.

Others
among the cast to catch my eye were the two old soldiers, Private Wil Fowler
and Colonel Rennett-Chalmers, played respectively by Keith Hales and Jon
Crowley. The former, looking back on his war years, says: "First we were
heroes...then old men, then we were victims". Mr Crowley managed subtly
to indicate that under his unassuming manner there lurked angst and pain,
telling us his strategy of coping with his memories of the War is: "Best
forget or keep it to yourself until you can't really remember." Dave
Cassar's Colonel Mead conveyed much of the strain of command, especially in a
painful court martial, and Tracy Hughes was a sympathetic 1978 production
assistant.